Few members of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York rally in support of Deborah Danner's family as they attend the trial of the NYPD officer who killed her. The lack of attendance​ brings into question the future of the Black Lives Matter movement and its​ message.

Every first Saturday of a month, a group of pro-life protesters and church members of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral head to Planned Parenthood on Mulberry St. to protest abortions. Now pro-choice activists are holding their own counter protests.

After 23 years in the West Village, Babu Fullsink’s cash register at the Hudson Diner will go silent at the end of the month. He decided to close because he was getting older and couldn’t keep up with the physical demands of restaurant work.

In groups of three to five people, HOPE volunteers are assigned a certain amount of blocks to canvass in one of the city’s five boroughs. They spend roughly four hours — from midnight to 4 a.m. — asking everyone they encounter if they have a place to sleep that night.

Six years ago, Aca was an undocumented immigrant working as a busboy at the Trump SoHo Hotel. Today, he has legal status and an associates degree in commercial photography. He is working towards a bachelors in international affairs at Baruch College.

when New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would cover the costs to re-open the statue, eager tourists rushed to lower Manhattan to cross Liberty Island off their list of must-see attractions.

Under the banner of “racial justice,” demonstrators drew connections between the struggles faced by people of color locally in New York City and the actions of the federal government, especially those of the last week.

Ida Burton, 57, or Duchess Down Lo, has been playing roller derby for nearly seven years. Burton yearned for the feeling of playing a team sport and after watching her daughters play sports growing up, Burton found her love in derby.

Using a silk aerial hammock suspended from the ceiling, Aerial Yoga students at Honor Yoga in Jackson, NJ explore new and traditional yoga postures with their body weight either partially or fully supported. Students say that this allows for expanded flexibility, increased range of motion, a lengthened spine, and relaxed nervous system while also building strength.

Since Trump was inaugurated, 11 days ago, performance artists Shia LaBeouf, Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner have asked members of the public to stand in front of the text and chant, ‘he will not divide us,’ for as long as they wish. A mounted camera, located just below the text, livestreams the activity at hewillnotdivide.us

As the crowds walked onto the Washington Monument lawn, one of the giant screen viewing areas, small groups of people began to chant “Trump, Trump, Trump!” But protestors came to watch the swearing in of the controversial 45th president too.

In the basement of Judson Memorial Church, in Greenwich Village, women from all of New York City’s five boroughs gathered to participate in the Muslim Community Network’s Self defense class. They come together to fight back against a hostile political climate.

Thousands of New York families marched from Trump Tower at Central Park West toward Central Park East and down 5th Avenue as a sign of solidarity with immigrant communities facing mass deportation under a Trump Administration.

Jeffrey Almonte is a 20-year-old Harlem native and content creator. Almonte's video, where he breaks down displacement in Harlem through his critique of an INSIDER Food video on Harlem and the iconic chopped cheese sandwich, went viral.

After Donald Trump threatened to prosecute his opponent and Hillary Clinton seized on a vulgar taped conversation Trump had to make her case against him during the second debate, the final debate was bound to get tumultuous.

During the two hours that Rahami was inside the laundromat, the Union County Bomb Squad, Federal Bureau of Investigation and New Jersey State Police were just down the road investigating the backpack full of explosives that police believe Rahami had planted at the Elizabeth Train Station.

The protesters gathered to express anger and frustration toward Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto’s New York visit and to remind the president of the 2nd anniversary of the mass disappearance of 43 students that took place in Iguala, Guerrero.

Despite recent unanimous support from politicians, some think that the wage gap continues to persist because women choose fields that pay less than men, such as early childhood-education and psychology versus STEM fields.

Though traditionally a quieter part of New York City, those exiting the 3rd Avenue - 138 Street subway station were met with the sound of live jazz and cheering as loud as the bright green uniforms worn by volunteers passing out water and bananas to runners.

Park rangers and police officers were turning away people with without identification bands. In addition to Van Briesen Park, Fort Wadsworth itself was accessible only to runners, police officers, and park rangers.

New York City generates more than $15 billion in annual sales—and this makes New York City the largest retail market in the US, according to the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

Though the hundreds of individuals that walk into One World Trade Center everyday can likely recall precisely where they were when the towers were hit, for many the tragedy is something to remember, not relive.

The Chinese government imposes tariffs on certain imported goods, so the retail prices are much higher in China than here. Some e students saw the opportunity and buy goods here and sell them to China at a markup.

Shortly after Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted for the murder of unarmed teenager Michael Brown, hundreds of protestors gathered in Union Square to voice their anger at the grand jury decision.

It is out with the new and in with the old at the South Ferry station.

Built in 1905, the old platform station was built higher above ground and suffered less damage from Hurricane Sandy than the new station.

The century-old station has been closed since the new South Ferry Station opened in 2009, but was pressed into service last week to accommodate the more than 10,000 daily riders in Lower Manhattan whose commutes were disrupted after the new South Ferry station suffered massive flooding from Sandy.

“You had to wait or you had to switch at another station,” said Laurie Ferrari of Tottenville, Staten Island. “Here you can just grab the 1 (train) and go.”

Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers quickly began work on restoring lighting and repainting station walls after Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last month that service on the 1 line would be restored in Lower Manhattan.

“As MTA New York City Transit assessed the extent of damage to the new South Ferry station, it became clear that the time necessary to repair it would be too long a period to deny our customers a direct link to lower Manhattan,” said MTA Interim Executive Director Thomas F. Prendergast in a press release.

Riders who normally took the 1 to or from South Ferry station had to walk four blocks to the nearest 1 line stop on Rector Street, or two blocks west to the 4/5 Bowling Green station. The rush of commuters to the 4/5 lines packed subway cars, with people often fending off others to cram onto the trains during rush hour.

“Having to walk to the 5 train was very inconvenient, especially during the cold weather,” said Gary Dennis of West Brighton, Staten Island.

The recently refurbished South Ferry station that underwent a $545 million renovation and expansion was inundated by Sandy’s storm surges that filled 15 million gallons of salt water into the station, coating walls with a blue-green residue and corroding switch boards, relay switches and circuit breakers. Two window panels on the mezzanine level were also blown out onto the tracks.

Trains began pulling into the station as of 5 a.m. Thursday morning, and include a new connection point between the new station mezzanine and the old South Ferry station, allowing transfers between the 1 train and the R train’s Whitehall Street station.

MTA officials estimate it will take at least two years and cost $600 million to fully restore the South Ferry station. Sandy caused nearly $5 billion in damages to New York subways, according to the MTA. (http://).

Nearly 200 demonstrators attended the NYSYLC Albany Day of Action, calling for legislatures to support the NY Dream Act. Photo by Daniella Silva.

Immigrants rights activists and legislators faced a setback last week in the push for the New York DREAM Act, which would give financial aid opportunities to undocumented youth, when the act failed to be included in this year’s $135 billion state budget.

The bill’s failure to be included in the budget stemmed from a discrepancy between the state’s two legislative bodies, the assembly and the senate. The State Assembly, which currently has a Democratic majority, had already included $25 million in its budget for the New York DREAM Act. However, the Senate never included it in its version of the budget.

“In the Senate it’s a much more complex situation right now,” said Katherine Tabares, a youth organizer for the not-for-profit Make the Road New York. “Republicans are not in favor of it and they, together with the independent Democratic caucus, form the majority.” There are currently 22 sponsors of the bill in the 63-member Senate.

Since it was not incorporated into the budget, the bill’s only chance of being enacted this year would be if both houses pass it by the end of the legislative session in June. The bill would make New York the fourth state to pass a DREAM Act granting undocumented students access to state funded financial aid. Approximately 65,000 undocumented students graduate from high school, but only 5-10 percent of undocumented high-school graduates go to college, according to the Immigration Policy Center.

Assemblymember Francisco Moya introduced the bill in its current form in mid-January alongside Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Higher Education Committee Chair Deborah J. Glick. The bill would give access to the state’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to qualifying undocumented youth, also establishing a DREAM Fund Commission to raise private funds for scholarships for children on immigrants. To qualify for the bill, undocumented students must have attended a New York high school for at least two years, graduated or received a GED, enroll in a college or university in the state of New York, and meet the requirements for TAP.

Senate Republicans in opposition to the bill have taken issue with its use of public funds. Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos said legislation establishing a private Dream Fund instead had a possibility to pass this year.

“I think there is support from people that tend to be a little bit more conservative,” said Skelos at the Crain’s Business Breakfast Forum in February. “As long as it’s private money put into the fund.”
But Tabares said there are already private funds for undocumented students, and that they do not go far enough to meet their financial needs.

“Regardless of whether national immigration reform is passed or not, the time that it would take for an undocumented youth to actually receive financial benefits from the federal government will be up to 14 years, so many students will have already graduated,” said Tabares, who is also a second semester student at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens. “The NY DREAM Act needs to pass this year because there are so many youth right now who can’t attend college.”

Governor Cuomo, who has come out in support of a federal DREAM Act, has yet to voice his support for the state sponsored legislation. Legislators in support of the bill have recently been more vocal in pushing the governor to take a stance.

“On behalf of all Dreamers, I am urging Governor Cuomo to again bring to bear his great courage, considerable political skills and extraordinary leadership abilities in getting something big, important and meaningful done. And make no mistake: Immigration reform is important and most certainly needs to get done,” said cosponsor Senator Jose Peralta in a statement last week.

“If Cuomo came out in support, many of the Senate Republicans in a neutral position right now could change their minds,” said Taberes. “But he hasn’t been vocal about it, and there continues to be opposition and a lot of doubt over the bill.”

Other undocumented students continued to hope the bill would pass while they were still in school.
“I feel behind compared to my citizen friends who have financial aid,” said Viviana Sanchez, a student at York College in Jamaica, Queens. “There are thousands of Dreamer students in New York State it would mean a lot to them, to parents—to my parents—and to myself.”

Viviana Sanchez, 19, a student at York College in Jamaica, Queens who just received deferred action said her inability to receive financial aid is forcing her to attend school part-time. Photo by Daniella Silva.

Sanchez, 19, added that her financial situation and inability to receive state financial aid have kept her a semester behind and forced her to attend college part-time.

“It’s been very hard for me to get through school, I try to work to supplement it with a bit of my parents help, but it’s still taking longer than it should,” she said.

Sanchez on the financial burden of being an undocumented student sanchez1

Tabares said the key to having the bill pass was continued activism throughout the state.
“I personally have seen the growth in the last three years about the community being more vocal and supportive about it,” said Tabares. “Undocumented youth have been fighting for the NY DREAM act for years, you just can’t give up until you get what you want.”

Last month nearly 200 students and activists joined the New York State Youth Leadership Council, an organization that represents undocumented youth, in an organized trip to the state capital calling on legislators to enact the NY DREAM Act. The group completed scheduled visits with 59 legislative offices and in addition to those planned visits, also completed drop-in visits with 31 additional legislative offices, according to Gabriel Aldana, a member of the NYSYLC.

As a result, the group had 12 new co-sponsors, said Aldana.

Maria Jaime, 21, co-coordinator of the Westchester chapter of the NYSYLC, addresses her team members before meeting with state legislatures regarding the NY DREAM Act. Photo by Daniella Silva.

Maria Jaime, 21, co-coordinator of the Westchester chapter of the NYSYLC, led a team of participants to meet with staff of State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow, and Assembly Member Addie J. Russell.

“Lobbying like this is a crucial part of passing a bill, focusing on activism and getting out in the streets,” said Jaime, a senior at Manhattanville College. “At the end of the day politicians are voting on the bill, but we give them that power as constituents.”

According to a report by the NYSYLC in conjunction with NYU Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic, the cost of extending the Tuition Assistance program would be approximately $17 million per year.

“If the New York State DREAM legislation were financed through the state income tax, it would represent 87¢ per year—less than the price of a single donut—for a median tax payer,” said Jaime.

Assemblymember J. Gary Pretlow, a co-sponsor of the bill following the NYSYLC’s trip to Albany, said he looked forward to the bill coming to the floor.

“This is an issue that has been before us for a number of years, I think it’s of the utmost importance that everybody be given the opportunity in this country to advance themselves and move on,” he said.

Jaime said overall she felt the visit was a success, and that the most rewarding aspect was seeing others in her team share their stories with legislative staff.

“Seeing how each time you tell a story it gets more a little more personal, that’s great for their own growth throughout the day,” she said. “Last year when I came was the first time I shared my story with politicians as well, I didn’t tell anyone but I was really scared, but once you say it out loud it’s so empowering.”

“Of course it’s daunting to tell a politician your story, they’re the people who make the laws, the people who decide if I stay here or not, if the New York DREAM act passes or not,” she said. “But it’s such a big accomplishment for me.”

Collegiate counseling and SAT preparation were once services that only the wealthiest of students could afford. Now, as a result of a partnership forged by two motivated educators, that is no longer a reality for students at Manhattan Hunter Science High School.

Principal Susan Kreisman and Scott Farber, President of A List Education, created a class at Manhattan Hunter called College Prep that meets during school every other day. During that time the school’s juniors receive SAT and ACT preparation from teachers who use A List’s methods.

Last year, the improvements from students’ PSAT to SAT scores at Manhattan Hunter were double the national average.

“Our mission is to take youngsters who are average, or a little less than average, academically and by dint of great teaching and great preparation make them both college ready and college successful,” said Kreisman.

“We, of course, being a city school had very little in the way of funding that we could offer and Scott’s commitment was such that he said, ‘We are going to make this happen,’” she said.

Farber, who would not have been able to attend Harvard without the scholarship he earned, founded A List so that he could help level the playing field.

“For me it seemed absolutely criminal that if you look at education as this equality of opportunity, it just isn’t equal,” he said.

Of the partnership Kreisman said, “One can only imagine how much further kids could go if we could provide them with more.”

When Noah Leff moved into his Crown Heights brownstone six years ago, he never imagined he would become Brooklyn’s resident chicken expert. Now, as the owner of Victory Chicken, Leff helps New Yorkers become part of the city’s growing urban agriculture movement.

When he first moved to Brooklyn, Leff, 40, became involved in his neighborhood’s community garden and started working with the chickens that live in the neighborhood’s coop. Through his work with the neighborhood birds, Leff had the idea to start his “quirky little business” which builds and installs coops in and around New York, provides hens for egg-laying and educates New Yorkers on how to raise chickens in their communities and homes.

“I quickly realized it was super easy to keep chickens in the city and kind of like a lot of fun for me,” he said.

While urban farming in New York has been on the rise for years, chicken raising has only recently started to boom as New Yorkers embrace the concept of slow food , and the movement’s idea that locally grown and sourced food is healthier and more environmentally sound.

For Leff, this increased desire meant that there needed to be an easier way for interested New Yorkers to get chicken coops started and have eggs and some meat sourced as locally as possible: from their own backyards and gardens.

“You can’t just go to the pet store and buy chickens or buy a chicken coop,” Leff said. “I just realized that people needed an easy way to do this. They needed an easy way to get chickens, to get coops because after we’ve helped them do that, it is super easy to maintain.”

For Leff, who currently uses the chickens for their eggs but plans to eat his family’s three hens once they reach around five-years-old and are past their egg-laying years, keeping chickens in the city is a “really reasonable way” for New Yorkers to take part in farming.

“From an urban agriculture standpoint it is very effective,” Leff said. “It is essentially the same cost as going to the supermarket so it seems very possible to me that a lot of people could just start doing this in their backyard and not have to buy factory-farmed eggs.”

While Leff says that chickens are essentially “gerbils that lay eggs” and that maintaining birds on his property is easy, keeping chickens in the city is not without its challenges.

Last spring, Lisa Heller, who lives in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, started raising chickens as what she believed would be a “fun project” for her and her 5-year-old son, Jackson. What she did not know then was that her project would become a long struggle with lead-contamination issues.

“I had my soil tested at Brooklyn College and, sure enough, my soil sample came back really high,” she said. “It had really high levels of lead and the eggs had really high levels of lead. I’m a mom, I can’t feed my kid lead.”

According to Leff, lead is a “real issue for urban farmers,” and all urban chicken-raisers need to remediate their land in order to keep their food supply safe. When Victory Chicken sets up a coop, Leff said he always makes sure that new hen owners—roosters are illegal in New York due to crowing and aggressive behavior— know about soil contamination issues.

“The thing is, if lead is going to be a problem in your chickens, if you are raising them in a high-lead environment, that environment is also not one where you can grow most vegetables or one in which you can even really hang out,” Leff said. “Chickens in a high-lead environment will get lead in their eggs as well as in their flesh.”

For Heller, this “lack of remediation” in her backyard meant getting rid of her original animals but, even so, she plans to continue farming her Brooklyn yard. Now, she is in the process of acquiring new birds and replacing soil in a section of her backyard so they will not come into contact with lead-contaminated soil.

“What I would say is that I love animals and I enjoyed having the chickens as pets,” she said. “If you are an urban farmer and you are doing this for the eggs only, the lead can be a lot of work for just some eggs.”

For Leff, the fact that his company is thriving despite lead issues demonstrates that urban agriculture is “working its way into the mainstream” of New York City society.

“A lot of people who keep chickens in the city were thought of as being people who want to live off the grid or are kind of hippyish” he said. “We’ve done rooftops, we’ve estates in Greenwich, we’ve gone to Long Island. This does not need to be an eccentric or fringe thing to do.”

Gefilte fish, the classic though much maligned Ashkenazi Jewish appetizer, has been revived and modernized by The Gefilteria, a Brooklyn-based startup. With Passover coming up this Monday night, The Gefilteria team is racing to keep up with gefilte fish orders. Photo by Circe Hamilton

On Monday night, Jews across the globe will join for a ceremonial meal marking the first night of the Jewish Holiday Passover. There will be wine to celebrate freedom. Maror herbs to symbolize the bitterness of slavery. Matzo to remember how the Israelites fled Egypt. And somewhere along the dining room table will appear the most polarizing dish of them all: gefilte fish.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Anna Perling, 21, of Park Slope, Brooklyn, said. “Gefilte fish is smelly and it is stored in this aspic-y, gelatinous substance. It was definitely a food of my childhood. Now it kind of grosses me out.”

Gefilte fish, the old-world Ashkenazi Jewish staple made from ground fish such as carp or pike, is a dish that modern Jews tend to associate with a grandmother who made it in their youth—but now stay far away from. The supermarket jarred variety preserved in a fish broth jelly has a lot to do with its notorious reputation.

But like with many ethnic foods that have experienced exciting revivals in the last few years—Greek yoghurt, Asian pork buns, the Mexican Cemita—The Gefilteria, the year-old Brooklyn-based startup, entered the food scene with big visions for Ashkenazic Jewish food too. By producing aesthetically-pleasing gefilte fish terrines using fresh and local ingredients, The Gefilteria transformed the highly maligned fish appetizer into something quite palatable, if not delicious.

“We are having a crazy response from people,” Elizabeth Alpern, 28, of Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, one of the three founders of The Gefilteria, said. “This morning I realized how quickly we are going through our inventory. We are even shipping gefilte fish across the country for Passover.”

A culinary staple with peasant origins, gefilte fish was introduced to America in the early 20th century as a standard food for eastern European immigrants. Today it is the quintessential appetizer at Sabbath and the Jewish holidays.

One year into the business, The Gefilteria is rushing to keep up with gefilte fish demand. In a Kosher for Passover facility in Paterson, N.J., the trio has been busy preparing 100 times as many gefilte fish orders than Passover last year.

But it took a lot of experimenting in the kitchen for The Gefilteria to discover how to reclaim their culinary heritage in today’s hip food scene. The trio realized that for gefilte fish to make a comeback, it would take aesthetics, freshness and the sourcing of the fish.

“Our gefilte fish does not come in a jar,” Alpern said. “We made it look more like a terrine or fish pâté with a line of salmon down the center. It’s such a beautiful and exciting thing to have on the plate.”

With a focus on baking, blast-freezing and sourcing sustainably managed fish such as salmon, Steelhead trout and pike from the Great Lakes, The Gefilteria produces a much fresher and healthier version of gefilte fish, appealing to a bigger more health-savvy market.

“We took out the carp from the traditional recipe because of the high mercury levels,” Alpern said. “We also don’t use any matzo meal or fillers. Ours is gluten-free. So it’s a lot denser, tastier and better for you.”

Altering the recipe has meant some friction with gefilte fish traditionalists, who often compare The Gefilteria’s modernized creation to a grandmother’s old recipe.

“They get thrown off by the different appearance,” Alpern said. “But after they taste it, they usually like it. Many say that it reminds them of their childhood. So that is really special.”

Elizabeth Alpern (left), Jeffrey Yoskowitz (center) and Jacqueline Lilinshtein (right) are the entrepreneurs behind The Gefilteria, a Brooklyn-based food startup. Reclaiming the food of their Ashkenazi Jewish roots, they have revived and modernized the concept of Gefilte fish, the classic though much maligned Jewish appetizer. With Passover coming up this Monday night, The Gefilteria is racing to keep up with gefilte fish orders. Photo by Circe Hamilton.

As well as gefilte fish, which is sold for $16.50 per 12-ounces; or $28.00 per 24-ounces, The Gefilteria also has two kinds of fresh horseradish, sweet beet and spicy citrus carrot, the latter being a modern interpretation of the carrots traditionally served on gefilte fish.

Alpern on her journey to becoming a gelfite fish connoisseurGefilte Fish

Beyond the Jewish holidays, The Gefilteria has been working to expand its concept to other consumer markets. The team spent all summer at the Brooklyn Flea selling their “Old-World Sampler Plate,” which came with a slice of gefilte fish on melba toast, borscht, sauerkraut and naturally fermented pickles.

“Between the taco guy and the lemonade stand, we actually fit in,” Alpern said. “Now we are seeing a demand for our gefilte fish as an hor d’oeuvre at parties.”

With pickles next on the product line agenda, The Gefilteria also plans to distribute nationally in supermarkets and other stores in the future.

Along with Kutsher’s in Tribecca, the modern Jewish-American bistro that claims it is “making Jewish food sexy,” and Mile End, the recently opened hipster deli, The Gefilteria is part of a growing movement in New York that is reviving and modernizing Jewish food.

“I think we are seeing a rebirth of interest in food,” Alpern said. “Jewish food has always been really great and engaging. But now it’s just on a whole new level because now you’re getting so many more people excited about food.”

Alex Kiton, 26, watches as his tutees attempt to approach and chat with women in Union Square. A professional pick-up artist employed by an international company, Kiton regularly leads practical pick-up lessons in public places like bars, bookstores, and parks. Photo by Jordyn Taylor

It was an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in early March, and a group of around 10 strangers—all men—had gathered outside the Whole Foods Market in Union Square. Around 3:45 p.m. they spotted the man they were waiting to see, gliding toward them in sunglasses and a leather jacket: Alexander Kiton—the man who would teach them how to pick up women.

After some brief introductions (some of the men were new to Kiton’s Sunday class; others had been before), Kiton led the group across the street to the tiered plaza at the heart of Union Square. It was time for pick-up practice.

“Girl in the headphones, that’s you,” Kiton said, pointing to one of his pupils. “Girl with the bandana, that’s you,” he said, pointing to another. Then they took off towards their targets.

Kiton, 26, is a full-time financier by day; by night and on weekends, he’s a professional dating coach—a real-life “Hitch” out of the 2005 film. After years of personal practice, Kiton developed his own unique strategy for picking up women—one he says is better than anything you’ll find in today’s popular pick-up literature. From one-on-one and group sessions to YouTube podcasts, Kiton is now determined to share his romantic tactics with the bachelors of America and beyond.

It all started in Kiton’s school days. Surprisingly, despite being smart, having friends, and playing varsity sports, the dating coach’s love life was frustratingly lacking.

“I had all these things that I thought would make me attractive and I still didn’t get any girls,” Kiton said. And that puts a guy in a really difficult situation. Because it’s one thing when you’re like, ‘Why am I not getting any girls?’ And then other guys, they look at you and they’re like, I bet that guy gets a lot of girls. And as a guy, [and] a lacrosse player, you can never admit that. So you’re almost living this lie.”

The summer he was 21, Kiton took a girl out to dinner, where they ran into one of his friends, Bill. By the end of the night, after the group had gone out to drinks together, it was Bill—not Kiton—who ended up scoring future dates with the girl.

Though the betrayal was painful, it would also provide fuel for Kiton’s future success.

Soon after, Kiton found out that Bill had learned his moves by reading a popular dating how-to book.

“I was like, ‘I’m going to go buy this book and be better than him’,” Kiton said.

Complete with recommended pick-up lines and bodily gestures, “The Game” lays out a step-by-step guide for men to snag a hook-up.

But the artificiality of Strauss’s proscribed tactics weren’t working for Kiton, who had recently moved to England to study at the London School of Economics.

“I went out and tried this [stuff], and got even less results,” Kiton said.

Looking back on his failed attempts at picking up the London ladies, Kiton now understands where he went wrong, and why “The Game” wasn’t earning him any playing time.

“[Men ask] the questions, ‘How do I become attractive to a girl?’ ‘How do I become interesting to a girl?’ And then, ‘What do I say in order to get a girl to like me?’ [But] no matter how well we are able to answer those questions, we’re never going to get good results. Because those questions are leading us to being inauthentic, and not being real.”

Leaving “The Game” behind, Kiton started applying his new-and-improved strategy to his pick-ups—both personally, and professionally. In 2008, his unique, effective tactics landed him a job with PUATraining, a self-described “international seduction training company” that pairs professional pick-up artists—called “trainers”—with single men looking to find romantic partners. Kiton worked as a “trainer” in England, Denmark and Texas before ultimately settling in New York’s East Village, where he fits in PUATraining around his 80-hour-per-week day job.

Sometimes, he’ll take a client for practical training at a bar, where he’ll sit in the corner and observe their attempts at talking to women. Other times, he’ll fit a client with a hidden camera, send him off toward a female target, and then analyze the video with the client once he’s returned. On some weekends Kiton will give lectures, or he’ll lead free group classes in Union Square. His mantra is always clear: don’t plan out the “perfect” opening line or the “coolest” conversation topic—just be yourself.

Some clients, like David Rothblatt, 35, of Nassau County—who has read “The Game” “50 to 100 times in the past 7 years”—question Kiton’s strategy.

“The real Alexander is cool,” said Rothblatt, who has attended Kiton’s Union Square classes three or four times. “[But] what if I’m a tall, smelly pimply kid with glasses? I’ve been trying to attract women in New York City and Long Island for 6, 7 years, and they go for guys who look a certain way and make them feel a certain way.”

Still, Rothblatt acknowledged that Kiton is a talented pick-up artist, and that the Union Square classes have been helpful to him.

“I got phone numbers,” Rothblatt said in regards to one of the classes he attended. “I feel good around [Kiton]. He’s a positive guy, he doesn’t B.S. you. He doesn’t sugar coat it. He’s a good guy, but he’s direct. I respect that.”

Kiton may have his skeptics, but there’s no doubt that his strategies are winning over the women.

“A bunch of people got married,” Kiton said of his clients. “I’ve been told I changed people’s lives all the time. It’s very cool.”

Struggling artists and hopeful gallery owners fled to Bushwick in search of building a new art scene. They were also in search of cheap rent so they acquired Bushwick’s abandoned buildings. Now, hopes of the area becoming a breeding ground for a new, experimental art scene have become a magnet for more people, more businesses and anything else indicating “next big thing”.

With each next big gallery opening, Bushwick’s art scene moves a little closer to being a pricey twin to Williamsburg’s art scene. As a result, some older Bushwick residents aren’t only priced out of their neighborhoods, they’re also disconnected from the art community coming in. But some artists are attempting to connect.

William Powhida, an artist who relocated to Bushwick from Williamsburg a few years ago, highlights the “social significance of the $13 hamburger”, brought into Bushwick by a wave of artists in his piece, “Things I Think about when I Think about Bushwick”.

“There are changes that people in the community are in support of,” said Powhida. “There’s less crime, less shootings, there’s not a drug war going on anymore, but at the same time, prices of milk goes up. The restaurants come in and the hamburgers are $13 dollars. There’s not a lot of development centered around the community. It’s centered around artists and their tastes,” he said.

In turn, some of Powhida’s work and interests are centered on Bushwick’s art world and how gentrification pushes much of the community onto the outskirts.

“We are the harbingers of gentrification,” said artist, Jennifer Dalton. “One way of looking at it is neighborhoods change and that is natural, but another way of looking at it is artists are on the frontlines of ruining other people’s situations and space. It’s ethically complicated,” she said.

Dalton, co-curator of Auxiliary Projects, an art gallery in Bushwick which sells pieces for under $300 in order to make them available to a wider and more diverse audience. She feels that although many of Bushwick’s changes are centered on artists, they have supported the community by turning empty spaces into useable ones.

“Look, people are here mainly to show their work, not necessarily to represent the community,” said artist, Deborah Brown. “We artists need to think of ways to build their community and be a part of the art dialogue.”.
Brown is the owner of Storefront Gallery and also on Bushwick’s Community Board. Many of Bushwick’s issues, from street lights to education initiatives are familiar to Brown. She’s also very keen on the art community finding ways to become more involved in Bushwick.

“…the community doesn’t really go to galleries,” said Brown.”…it’s presumptuous; they’ve been here for 30 years. They aren’t interested in seeing white artists. Who’s going to do that?”

Joe Ficalora, creator of 5 Points Bushwick , an ongoing street art project between Wycoff and St. Nicholas Avenue on Troutman Street, said Bushwick residents would probably visit Bushwick’s 50-plus galleries more often if they could connect to them more.

“Kids should go home and pick up a pen after seeing these murals and say I connected to this…”

Ficalora grew up in Bushwick and said his exposure to baseball kept him out of trouble. He feels art could do the same for kids today.

“It’s about sharing,” he said. “Why can’t we be responsible for having that impression for the community, for the kids?”

Brown feels that that despite the changes in the physical landscape, artists should get to know their neighbors.

“We have totally different experiences but it gets you out of your cocoon,” she said. “The art community has their own lives and they’re not drawn into the larger community unless they want to be. Efforts are just at the beginning but artists have to get the ball rolling,” said Brown.

Rockaway resident John Cori has been warning state and local officials about the vulnerability of the Rockaways diminishing shorelines for years. The slender peninsula acts as a barrier island for Queens and parts of Brooklyn, and bordering the Atlantic Ocean, is constantly testing Mother Nature.

And after Cori, a lifelong Rockaway Beach resident, witnessed the destruction of Hurricane Sandy last October, rather than look for vindication, he wanted answers.

“We were just a bunch of locals that were upset about the lack of a sense of urgency about the erosion issues in the Rockaways,” Cori said from his Beach 92nd Street home, right at the epicenter of the hardest hit area of the Rockaways.

He asked questions like why the city hadn’t been addressing long-term measures to prevent beach erosion? Why isn’t more sand being added to the beaches? And above all, why two tropical storms the past two years have not resulted in legislative action that would help protect the Rockaways from future storms?

With more questions than answers, Cori, along with fellow Rockaway resident Eddy Pastore, formed the neighborhood advocacy group, Friends of Rockaway Beach, in an effort to prompt local officials to take action. They not only wanted residents to have a say in the protection of their shorefront neighborhoods, but also how Post-Sandy restoration efforts were being addressed.

John Cori, left, with 100th Precinct Community Council President Danny Ruscillo Jr., pictured right, at a Friends of Rockaway Beach rally in December in Rockaway Beach pushing for the installation of more rock jetties along the Rockaways southern shoreline. Cori formed the advocacy group for residents to voice their opinions about restoration efforts to state and local officials. Photo courtesy of Friends of Rockaway Beach.

Cori has started multiple campaigns such as “Demand the Sand” and “Ready for the Jetties,” imploring local officials to assess the damage to the boardwalk and listen to residents’ ideas and proposals. Cori says he plans to hold a press conference at the steps of City Hall later this month to reach out to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration.

“The people of Rockaway should be heard,” he added. “It’s very important for the city of New York to hear it because it’s a government of the people.”

Hurricane Sandy Aftermath

Three months after Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the peninsula, many residents are still trying to get their homes, businesses, and lives in order. Storm surges washed away 1.5 million cubic yards of sand, and ripped the wood on the Rockaway Beach boardwalk right off the concrete pilings, leaving beachside staircases and ramps filled with sand and detached from the walkway.

According to Cori, aside from some sand cleanup along Shorefront Parkway, the beach looks the same as it did the day after the storm.

“It still hasn’t woken enough people up,” he said. “That’s the biggest problem.”

John Cori’s home on Beach 92nd St in Rockaway Beach, Queens shortly after Hurricane Sandy. The home is less than 100 yards from the Atlantic Ocean, and suffered extensive foundational and structural damage. Cori’s Friends of Rockaway Beach wants more of a say in how Post-Sandy restoration efforts to the beach community are implemented. Photo courtesy of John Cori.

Another problem is that the little protection Rockaway beaches have in the form of rock jetties–some of stone, but many made from now-decaying wood–do not prevent massive storm surges from washing ashore and spilling into the streets.

The beaches not only proved incapable of enduring Sandy’s power, according to Cori, but they also lack any elevation needed to act as a barrier between the storm surges and the beachfront community.
Stalled efforts to address beach erosion

Previous efforts to address how to protect the flood-prone peninsula have come to no avail. As early as 2003, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation agreed to conduct a study on how to provide long-term protection. Whether in the form of refurbished rock jetties, a redeveloped beach berm, or the building of sand dunes along the beach, the study remains incomplete due to a lack of funding, leaving long-term protection measures unaddressed.

“The past 10 years, it was always an infrequent project,” said Cori. “If our beaches were eroded, we’d have to wait at the mercy of those (projects) being funded, and those were usually four to five million dollar projects.”

Current Restoration Efforts

The Army Corps of Engineers announced earlier this month that they would restore most of the southern shoreline–from Beach 19th to Beach 149th–in an effort to replenish sand washed away during the storm, widening the gap between the ocean and beachfront homes.

“Our task is to construct a restored beach to the original authorized design which is a beach sand and a beach berm 10 feet above sea level and at least 100 feet wide,” said Dan Falt, project manager of the Army Corps of Engineers, in an interview with NY1. last month.

But the project is not set to begin until June and is expected to take four to five months, the Army Corps of Engineers said. Further exasperating the problem is the notion that the project would be underway in the height of the Atlantic hurricane season: June until the end of November.

“It’s way too delayed,” Belle Harbor resident Joe Hartigan said in response to the Army Corps of Engineers current restoration plans. “Nothing has been done.”

Another member and vocal advocate for Friends of Rockaway Beach, Hartigan said it is disheartening to constantly be reminded of the storms damage to the Rockaways, and is worried about the next hurricane season.
“It really starts to affect (people) down the road,” he added.

The future of the Rockaways

Earlier this month, the Bloomberg administration allocated $1.77 billion in Community Development Block Grants to address the most urgent housing, business and infrastructure needs, according to a Feb. 6 press release .

However, of the $1.77 billion, only $140 million is dedicated to “infrastructure resiliency,” which is mostly through entrepreneurial competitions encouraging business plans that can stimulate economic growth and a systematic overhaul of utilities operations. It is unknown whether any of the grants will go toward funding to the stalled 2003 study on how to address Rockaway beach erosion.

Cori organized the “Demand the Sand” campaign in August 2012 asking state and local officials to tackle beach erosion and address the lack of any beach barriers in place to protect the community. Cori says that even after Sandy swept 1.5 million cubic yards of sand off the beaches, long-term measures to protect the beach have stalled. Photo courtesy of Friends of Rockaway Beach.

And while Sandy has also reopened the debate of rebuilding along New York’s coastline (The damage to areas like Rockaway Beach, Far Rockaway and Breezy Point in Queens, and Oakwood Beach in Staten Island, even prompted Gov. Cuomo to spend as much as $400 million – on home buyouts to encourage residents to relocate), Rockaway residents do not plan on moving. Amidst the destruction, they will always hold a special bond and unconditional loyalty to the isolated beach community.

Fuelled by celebrities and the media, gluten-free eating has become a huge dietary trend in North America in the last few years: medical professionals have been skeptical; proponents of the diet say it helps with weight loss and general health. Supermarket aisles now boast an endless selection of gluten-free packaged foods. Photo by Mary Zarikos.

The thought of someone willingly going without bread and pasta makes Megan Henry, of Toronto, cringe with frustration. Henry, 23, has Crohn’s, a disease that causes inflammation and damage to the gastrointestinal tract. For her, cutting out gluten is not a choice.

“If I eat a piece of regular toast, I will be curled up on the couch for days,” Henry said. “I have to be very cautious with my gluten sensitivity. For me, eating even a crumb of gluten will trigger a flare up.”

Gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye, can cause severe allergic reactions when people suffering from Crohn’s and celiac disease, a condition damaging the lining of the small intestine, eat it. Yet gluten-free dieting has become the latest dietary trend. Alternate health practitioners, athletes, personal trainers and celebrities like Oprah and Gwyneth Paltrow have attributed their weight loss and glowing skin to it. Out of the 1.6 million people on a gluten-free diet in North America, 80 percent of them have not been diagnosed with celiac disease.Gluten-free has become a full-blown fad—and skeptics and medical professionals have not been quick to embrace it.

“People want to believe there is an easy solution to weight loss, low energy, high blood sugar and other medical issues,” Nutritionist Dr. Amy Stephens, 40, of Westchester, NY, said. “Proponents of gluten-free claim it helps, or alleviates many of these issues.”

Stephens thinks it is a myth that gluten-free can solely solve these common nutrition issues in a country where the majority of people overeat on wheat-based carbohydrates.

With the rise of the gluten-free movement, the food industry has exploded with an endless selection of gluten-free packaged foods in supermarket aisles nationwide. Consumers buy these gluten-free replacements, made with ingredients like amaranth, quinoa and cornstarch, not realizing that they are often heavily processed, just as fattening and high in sugar.

“I have seen this with type 1 diabetes and celiac patients,” Stephens said. “They see higher blood sugar spikes after eating gluten-free cereals, breads and desserts. Gluten-free foods also have comparable calories, fat and sodium to non gluten-free foods.”

Following a gluten-free diet would require more time spent on food preparation. With 50 percent of meals being eaten out, Stephens does not find this to be a sustainable long-term dietary solution for everyone.

“Most of my patients want to spend very little time shopping and preparing foods,” Stephens said. “And so they unsuccessfully try to fit gluten free into an already stressed lifestyle.”

She does agree that cutting out gluten may be helpful for overweight patients to try as a noninvasive approach to weight loss, if done properly.

“Studies show, overweight patients lose weight more successfully if they eliminate large food groups,” Stephens said. “Patients that overeat pasta, bagels, breads or desserts will benefit by cutting these foods out and going gluten-free.”

For Mai Brantley, 21, of St. Louis, Mo., the local title holder for Ms. America, gluten-free dieting combined with “clean eating,” a focus on eating pure, unprocessed foods, has been the answer to her health and weight loss goals as she pursues Ms. Missouri this coming June.

“I thought the whole concept was really strange at first,” Brantley said, referring to her personal trainer who lost 13 pounds after eliminating wheat from his diet. He urged her to watch “Hungry for Change,” a documentary about the hidden truths of dieting and the food industry.

“I didn’t know so many chemicals derived from wheat,” she said. “Now I look for products that are gluten-free, but not high in chemicals.”

Brantley, who is not allergic to wheat, says she will only eat Ezekiel 49, a kind of bread made from sprouted wheat. Anything that is not true wheat, she will not touch.

“I’ve lost a ton of weight,” Brantley said. “When wheat was in my diet, I was always hungry for something bread related. Since going gluten-free, my cravings subsided. One of the areas of the competition is swimwear. So it’s really a big deal to get in shape.”

Five years ago, Joy Ladin, 51 was Jay Ladin, an English professor at Yeshiva University, in Washington Heights.

“I am what we would now call transgender,” she said.

Married with three children, she planned her suicide to escape this feeling of “being in the wrong body.

When she started to transition in 2006, Ladin was placed on indefinite leave by the Orthdox Jewish university’s administration. After regaining her status through legal channels she became the first trans person to teach at a Jewish Orthodox institute.